


Strangers Who Used to Fuck

by orphan_account



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied/Referenced Incest, Incest, Smut, but also fluff at times, explictish smut, i want more tags but this kinda sums it up, rick sanchez-freeform, sex will be had, sin by default, summer smith-freeform, sumrick-freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:22:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A sumrick one shot based off of the prompt "We were never lovers. We were just strangers who used to fuck."Part of a fic trade with blue10spade. (angst but also smut and occasional happiness) Whole fic around 6k."Cold brown eyes focused on his steel blue one’s and it was unsettling how much Summer had come to resemble his mannerisms. The years had brought her maturity and the ability to detach from her frivolous emotions. Sitting up straighter and staring back to the man who had always intimidated her with unshaking confidence, Summer said words she could never had when she was seventeen. No, seventeen-year-old Summer wrapped in her grandfather’s arms as he kissed her with liquor saturated lips could never say the lie she was about to utter."





	Strangers Who Used to Fuck

“I’m tired of talking. There’s nothing more for either of us to say.”

Jaw shifting and hands quivering as she set down her tea, Summer glanced up to Rick. His face was expressionless not giving any leeway to his reaction to her words. The pair sat alone separated by half eaten plates and a shattered water glass. The tense family dinner lead to this shared confrontation which left both of them conflicted.

She should have never agreed to come out, she knew it would have been a disaster. Morty’s text had convinced her, but now after he had spilled and broke his water glass he ran off to the bathroom. Beth had followed in order to flag down a waiter to help her clean up the remaining mess.

As the two sat in momentary silence water continued to drip from the table’s edge.

Cold brown eyes focused on his steel blue one’s and it was unsettling how much Summer had come to resemble his mannerisms. The years had brought her maturity and the ability to detach from her frivolous emotions. Sitting up straighter and staring back to the man who had always intimidated her with unshaking confidence, Summer said words she could never had when she was seventeen. No, seventeen-year-old Summer wrapped in her grandfather’s arms as he kissed her with liquor saturated lips could never say the lie she was about to utter.

“We were never lovers, _Rick_. We were just two strangers who used to fuck.”

* * *

 

The affair had started shortly after Rick returned from prison, between soft smiles and lung filling inhalations of strawberry shampoo.

He watched her petite form slip out of the front door when the clock hit midnight to be with her friends surrounded by subpar pleasures. Summer didn’t know that anyone knew she was sneaking out until her nose slammed into Rick’s chest when she returned one night. Her steps were uneven and the smell of alcohol surrounded her.

“G-Goddammit S-Summer…Course y-you came home sloshed.”

As per usual a scowl covered his aged face but when she jolted back in surprise he couldn’t stop the bark of a laugh that exited his throat. Summer slurred back an excuse that was half sober and her grandfather watched her babble while taking a drag from his own flask.

Her vision was skewed and tears threatened to leak from her intoxicated eyes. More than anything she wished to sleep and made an effort to go around Rick to the stairs.

Rick allowed her space to move and observed the way her hand guided the rest of her path by dragging across the wall. Pride and an emotion resembling concern filled him, letting her struggle through the alcohol for a bit he finally decided after ten minutes to help her. Solid hands wrapped around her shoulders and Summer yipped in surprise. Rough as she expected she followed suit as Rick assisted her slumped form to the staircase.

The sight of the stairs made her impulsively drop to her knees to crawl up them.

“T-Thank you, grandpa.”

The sound that exited her dry mouth was a poor excuse of Summer’s voice and he hmphed a curse under his breath. Pale hands reached out to each step as she began to climb and he turned to leave believing she would be able to make it to her room alive at least.

A whine escaped her and she gave up hope, the logical choice to conserve energy and sleep on the stairs was too inviting.

Glancing over his shoulder, Rick could see the way her body relaxed and tried to mold to the steps. That solution would technically incriminate him for not at least moving her body out of the general walkway. It was the least he could do from a highly functioning alcoholic to a new comer. The squeak of his boots on the hardwood caused the drowsy teen to raise her head.

Red eyed and flushed Summer blinked slowly finding comfort in the complete capture of Rick’s unmoving hands. With jerky movements, she was pulled from the steps fazing in and out of true consciousness. In a series of shifts her grandfather had lifted her into his arms and managed to pick her up. Tucking an arm under her legs he hoisted her higher and with a secure grip carried Summer up the staircase.

Automatically she curled, and murmured how comfortable and happy she was. Something about feeling at home escaped her and he only took note of her whispered confessions when her cheek deliberately rubbed against his thin chest. Her wisps of freed hair waved around spreading the fruity smell of her perfume in his nostrils and he was unsettled to realize he enjoyed and desired to hold her. The touch sparked something he had done quite a lot of drinking to cover up and now he wanted to drop her body ruthlessly and escape.

Instead he rushed.

Rick hurried to dispose of the woman before his fantasies returned from their hidden depths and pushed her bedroom door open.

Unfortunately, her weak hold on him tightened after he placed her body on the bed. There was a desperation in her wild eyes as she clawed on the lab coat. Rick did his best to pull back but she was stronger than his tired body could handle at the moment. A hand flew out to steady himself on the bed beside her hip as she hugged and squeezed him.

The affection was short lived though, he shoved her down briskly by her shoulders.

“En-enough you little sh-shit. Sleep. P-please SU-urp-ummer.”

Under his hold Summer giggled and withered unyielding.

“S-Stay please!”

“N-no.”

The rejection felt more for himself than his wasted granddaughter.

Summer pouted and her hand sloppily came to caress his wrinkled cheek. A smile stretched covering her blushing cheeks and he had no choice but to admit that she was in fact beautiful. Alas he could not stay though, he understood the difference between right and wrong.

Some rules were meant to be upheld.

Rick stared down at her for a moment longer, annoyance tugged at his chest but adoration did as well. Closing his eyes, he soaked in her heat radiating presence before withdrawing himself as he always did.

Summer insistently pressed her hand into his skin and without another thought he pressed a quick and regret filled kiss to her palm. Fingertips that found themselves resting on her soft wrist released and he pulled back.

In the morning, Summer woke up with a headache and several memories of the night before missing to the void of black.

* * *

 

 Across the dining room table Summer would sit chewing on the tip of her pencil. The sunlight that flooded through the window creating a halo effect from highlighting all of her auburn flyways.

The determined expression deep set on her soft features resembled his own so similarly Rick stopped in his tracks.

Originally only intending on passing through the dining room to the kitchen the vision of Summer working momentarily distracted him. Something about seeing her face contort in thought made her more beautiful than before.

Realizing he had been looking at her for much longer than he should he grumbled and continued to the kitchen. Summer paid no attention to the loud rustling and burps that emanated from the kitchen until she had finished writing and sat back from her hunched position to overlook her work. The numbers filled the entire sheet of paper and she circled the single digit answer with a sure smirk.

Yawning and turning her head to look into the kitchen she hollered to Rick.

“Is the coffee in there already made, grandpa?”

If it was anyone else he would not have made the effort to look at the coffee pot, regardless he was not going to be helpful. He yelled back as he slammed the fridge shut after pulling out a beer.

“Y-you have eyes don’t you S-urp-Summer?”

Rick grinned as he heard her shove herself from the table and moved to leave the area. The memory of kissing her soft sweaty palm lingered in his mind still and it was best it remained just a memory. Summer gently shoved him out of the way huffing something along the lines of ‘fuck you’. Pulling one of the larger mugs down from the shelf she began pouring the coffee black, Rick’s eyes darted away and he continued his descent from the kitchen.

Her soft tired voice called him back and the vulnerability in her tone caused him to stop.

“Is it okay if I use some of the tools and stuff in the garage? I won’t mess with any of your things!”

For a moment, his instinctual possessiveness of his inventions and domain kicked in but it was overpowered by subtle interest. Although he was not sure of the result of her work, Rick’s interest was piqued by the possibility Summer may be the one to carry the legacy. Perhaps she would succeed him-unlikely though she did share Jerry’s stupid genes.

Resisting the urge to shoot her down as he usually did with his grandchildren he cursed back at her.

“K-knock yourself the fuck out. B-But if you mess a-anything up, y-urp-you’ll regret it.”

Her face split in two when she smiled and there was a distinct joy in her sober smile that her drunken one lacked. Rick scowled in response as she sang back her thanks and briskly jogged away from the kitchen with her coffee.

Rick stood for a moment in the doorway as Morty entered rubbing his eyes permanently exhausted from being dragged across the multiverse. He tapped his grandfather’s shoulder and pointed to the plumbus in his hand seeming distressed.

“U-uh Rick, I d-don’t know if the fleeb ever g-got rubbed on this plumbus…”

Summer was definitely the brighter one.

Loud clamors echoed from the garage as the redhead tinkered and adjusted piece after piece. When she first entered the work space she did her best to keep all her gears and metals in one place but as the hours extended so did her mess. At one point, she claimed a piece of the whiteboard as well erasing a dickbutt Morty had drawn on it a few days prior. With her back to the door she checked her phone occasionally between sips of coffee to read instructions on how exactly to wire the circuit board she was creating.

No one invited her out anymore though, she had passed the partying phase at this point college was getting too close.

Hopefully with the prototype of her invention she could leave the house and the underlying hatred between her family. Moving to another state and staring new was less attainable than visiting the nearest dimension with the competitive acceptance rates of the colleges she was looking at. Even with Jerry “gone” from the house no one really paid attention to her ambitions or goals.

Beth pretended but when she spoke to her mother about applying and her day it was hard to see past the intoxicated glaze over her eyes. Picture day still scarred her. Morty was an idiot, he loved her sure but he was in a different phase in his life. While she enjoyed spending time with Morty and he listened as best he could, she got the impression he only did this to be nice.

It would be easy to leave, there was possible way to attain her grandfather’s approval or love the way her brother had.

There was something about knowing that which caused a deep jealously within her accompanied by a lust. Summer had never felt that inappropriate want for her grandfather until after he returned from prison and she did her best not to think of it either. It was most likely some Freudian slip that the oppressive strains of society and feminine competition had awoken within her.

Plugging in headphones to drown out her thoughts with loud music, Summer rose and diligently laid cleaned lenses on her table. Similar to her grandfather she did not stop until she completed and worked almost obsessively.

Her stomach growled begging for attention and as she tightened in the last screw she sighed.

Grabbing the teddy bear she had brought along with her for the initial test run, her semi loved stuffie was placed on the cold metal. Setting the prototype in front of the bear she flicked a switch and gasped when it disintegrated before her eyes. A pile of ash replaced the once fluffy friend and her palm slammed on the machine once more in frustration.

“God D-DAMMIT…”

A low beep followed her action and a blue scan occurred from one of the screens before it rumbled as it processed. The machine whirled its gears and Summer’s eyes peeled back open as she lifted her hand from the now hot metal. Materializing from the ash the bear reformed almost flawlessly and she picked it up with hands shaking from excitement.

The now reformed object had a vile smell but she was still ecstatic.

After a few celebratory yells, she frowned and set the bear back down on the metal workbench. The prototype did nothing of what it was supposed to…Her eyes lingered back to the white board where she stared for a long moment letting the numbers click through her memory.

“Two…eighty-eight…seventeen thousand.”

 Blue writing mixed with her more recent red and it took a second before she realized what exactly she had done. Summer had completed Rick’s calculations, that is what she programmed into the machine. Her eyes soaked in the monstrosity which was now the white board and something shifted when she realized this was the only physical proof she shared anything with her grandfather at all.

“h-HE-hey!”

She whirled around at the sound of Rick’s angry bark.

“W-urp-what the fuck did I tell you, Summer…”

Suddenly he stopped his rant midsentence as his eyes took in the writing covering the whiteboard, the hands which were positioned on his hips slowly dropped to his sides. Whispering numbers to himself under his breath he stepped forward, his long finger followed the erratic pattern which was their math colliding to a symphonic cadenza.

“I’ll be damned.”

Summer thought she was dreaming when his hand rested on the small of her back or when the indirect praise met her ears. Relief and uncontrollable pleasure flooded her entire body and the thought she wanted his hand to stay there lingered.

Rick remembered the way she had clung to his body the night she had come home drunk and he allowed his palm to slip off her back.

An unspoken intimacy was formed between them as they gazed at their shared efforts. He didn’t know how much longer he could shove his demons away.

* * *

 

Impulse fueled Rick more than he liked to admit.

Upon seeing Summer half bent over the work bench, head drooped on the metal and drool spreading in a pool from her lips he impulsively covered her with his lab coat. The act meant nothing to him at first until he found himself doing it again and again. If it was Morty he would have shaken him awake and grumbled for him to get into his own bed.

Rick was making exceptions for her.

As he placed his labcoat over her porcelain shoulders that night his nails curled gently around her for a moment and he hissed low. The action stirred that want in his gut that amplified the want to ground his hips into her back as she worked. It was the same growling desire that overtook him when he checked over her writing on the whiteboard that mixed with pride. She was so sweet when she smiled up to him as he erased more room for her to continue.

Summer slept soundly and Rick found himself slowly massaging her shoulders.

Under his breath he cursed and yanked his hands from her as quickly as he possibly could. Disgusted with himself he couldn’t believe he was doing this, touching his granddaughter as she slept. He really was just a sick old fuck.

When the morning came around Summer awoke and wrapped the labcoat around her frame tighter, it was strong with the smell of alcohol and sweat yet she did not want to let it go. Stretching out with a crooked neck, Summer yawned and rolled her head over and over. She expected to be alone when she turned in the stool but found herself staring at her grandfather’s half lidded eyes.

“Good morning.”

Rick stared back at her with something predatory behind his eyes, taking a challenging sip from his flask he watched her expressionless. Summer mimicked the behavior and leaned herself back on the counter as her legs fell apart.

They didn’t speak and his eyes drifted down between her now spread legs slowly before running back up her body to her face.

He rose from his position on the chair facing her and stalked into her space and confidently between her thighs. The demons that plagued him were done sleeping and the innocent gasp that she gave made him hum.

Seventeen and untainted was his weakness.

“You’ve been in the garage a l-ot, Su-Summer. Why.”

Stunned by his behavior she stuttered and felt her cheeks overload with his proximity. Excuses fell from her lips but she had finished her actual prototype a while ago, now she worked in the garage for reasons she did not want to even admit to herself. Unable to look up to his face as he towered over her sitting form her eyes fell to his stomach.

Shaking fingers smoothed over the fabric of his sweater that covered his abdomen.

The entire action felt so airy she was sure she was still dreaming and asleep not attempting to seduce her grandfather. It was too late to worry about what was right or wrong though as his breath hitched and her whole palm slinked over his stomach. Their eyes locked as he watched her nails disappear under the fabric of his sweater.

Her cold fingertips on his hot skin pulled loud unabashed huffs from the older man and he fell into his impulses as their lips smashed together.

Desperation pulsed from her withering form as she shoved his shirt up higher and higher, the need to be validated hot in her blood. Rick knew he shouldn’t feed this sinful action but he was already tossing his clothing aside and getting high off of the taste of her tongue. His teeth sunk into her bottom lip and he bit down pulling a loud yelp from the younger woman.

He refused to be gentle with her though, it would make the coupling more fucked up then it already was.

Pulling back a moment, Summer stared at Rick.

“R-Rick…”

As her voice wavered in his ears his fingers like serpents clasped around her wrists. Regardless he paused and the tip of his nose brushed hers as they panted shallowly in unison.

“Take off your pants…”

Swallowing hard Rick allowed his eyes to trail up to the ceiling as he shivered at his granddaughter’s kisses trailing down his exposed abdomen. The sound of his belt buckle coming undone and hitting the floor made him wince but the wickedness pumped blood straight to his groin. He had finally come undone and as her pale hands wrapped around his cock and stoked he whispered to the nonexistent gods above.

“F-Fucking hell.”

Rick closed his eyes and let out the filthiest groans as Summer’s mouth engulfed his cock slathering it with generous amounts of spit. Her soft hands came to rest on both sides of his hips and her fingers caressed him with love he couldn’t understand. Eventually he glanced down to watch the vision of Summer taking him in her mouth and felt tight with anxiety and pleasure. His hands were tangled in her hair, his fingers yanking the strawberry strands from her skull, and he found comfort in touching her so savagely. Yet the tender adoration remained in her eyes unsettling him with his fast thrusts into her throat.

The hot pleasure of her mouth was making him drowsy in a way and she elicited a rare gasp from Rick when her tongue caressed his shaft.

She was unable to think as he jerked her head off of his cock and gathered her panting body in his arms. Thumps of limbs and the slap of her front on the metal workbench filled their ears as he pushed her eager body over the table.

“Y-yeah-”

Summer managed to make out the plea through her lightheaded moans and his cold fingers shoving down the back of her jeans. It was an effortless tug that exposed her soaked heat to the tension filled air and he repeated the agreement to her with a dirty smirk. The way her back shuddered as his chest pressed flush against her was addictive.

When he filled her, Rick sucked on the exposed flesh of her throat and ensnared her in his shaking hands. Her body hit the side of the table as he pumped into her with rushed hard thrusts and staring at the wall in front of her she moaned uncontrollably.

So, this is what love was like.

As they fucked Summer felt complete and Rick wondered if he would be able to ever control the impulses ever again.

* * *

 

Rapid taping of keys and sips of black coffee were interrupted by the elongated burp from Summer’s doorway.

Lounged with her back to the headboard she glanced up to see Rick’s towering figure staring down at her. Neither of them had spoken to one another for a few days after the event, lost in guilt and avoidance. If it was awkward between them no one noticed except Morty, who was more intuitive than anyone thought.

He felt as if he had taken advantage of her.

Annoyance covered her features as she returned her gaze to the laptop in her lap filling out an application to a university. He had to resist the urge to grab for his flask to handle the situation without the gnawing feeling of fault. 

She was his attention starved granddaughter, he should have protected her from everything including **_himself._**

Instead he had savagely fucked her in the garage and left her there like a shamed whore.

“The silent treatment? C-cold, Su-urp-Summer.”

Her eyes glanced back to Rick and the look she gave could have turned weaker men to stone. Scalding humor was the only way he really coped with situations and this was a situation if he knew one. If he was being honest he should have just left her alone until she went off to college, maybe wipe her memory, drug her and convince her the whole thing was just some wild dream.

Rick hadn’t though, although clouded with guilt he still lacked self-control.

 Some emotion resembling loss impacted him now that she did all of her work in her room rather than the garage. The lust that accompanied the memory of kissing her drunken palm was only intensified by the memory of her slickened heat wrapped around him. He also liked Summer, in a way.

She was a pain in his ass, stubborn, and irritating. Yet she was intelligent, out spoken, and emotionally driven. It disturbed and intrigued Rick the way she resembled him but when she openly showed concern for others than herself he was reminded Summer was a different entity on her own.

The least he could do was clear out the air.

“I didn’t think you would want to talk to me, Rick.”

Her eyes didn’t raise from the screen again as she seemed to spat out his name like poison. He deserved that. Taking a deep breath, he considered moving closer to the teenager but decided against it. Summer continued to type with more vigor now and he swore the keyboard would break under her flying fingers.

“L-listen, kiddo-”

Summer paused her typing to stare straight forward at the wall.

“Really. Kiddo? You’re gross, Rick. I can’t fucking believe you right now, you’re calling me kiddo? After what happened?”

The idea to flee and continue dodging her tempted him more than ever. Rick cleared his throat keeping in the biting response that he could easily bring her to tears with. He did care about her, liked her in that concerning way he shouldn’t but she was edging the defensive snark he had lying under the surface.

Groaning and now taking a long drag from his flask he spoke to her rigid form.

“I’m at fault-alright? F-fuck. I sh-shouldn’t have done that to ya. I wanted to just say-if you want me to l-leave I’ll go. I-I’ll make s-some ex-urp-excuse and the garage is all your’s.”

Summer furled her brows stunned at the closest thing her grandfather could get to an apology. Rick Sanchez didn’t apologize, he wasn’t the nice at all. Even though she was angry for him tossing her aside the apology was touching. Rick never showed remorse for anything and her naïve and forgiving nature pushed her to feel as if she had wronged him.

“It-It’ll never happen again, Summer.”

Suddenly she was standing.

Rick stumbled back out of her way as she padded to the doorway where he stood and stared up to him. Her cheeks were flushed and her freckles almost disappeared into the red of her cheeks. Being this close to him again made her unhealthily excited and butterflies buzzed in her stomach.

Here he was, this bitter old man asking for her forgiveness.

Summer had never felt more special.

“Never again, ok. _Grandpa_.”

Rick nodded in agreement and sipped on his flask idly waiting for her to move away once more. The soft smile that covered her face made him uncomfortable.

Countless beings had stared at him with that enamored look but seeing Summer gaze up to him with it went against what they just agreed on. A few mere inches separated them before she took a single step back and moved to resume working on what she had been doing before he entered.

He didn’t move from the doorway though.

“L-like it uh…never h-happened.”

Rick’s forced out a laugh.

“What happened?”

Summer responded smiling and feigning innocence. He nodded and crossed his arms feeling slightly better about their predicament. Now all he had to do was drink himself into a detached stupor and his work here was done.

The old man turned to leave and she watched him leave wordlessly.

 He lounged on the couch nursing his usual bottle of alcohol hours later mindlessly consuming interdimensional cable, Morty having passed out beside him an hour before. He could hear Beth sobbing upstairs with some murmur about Jerry but she was better off without him. Nothing else took his attention from the television in front of him until he saw bare pale legs in his peripheral.

Summer stood beside the arm of the couch looking down for once at her handsome grandfather.

Her eyes ran over every winkle that covered his face as well as the sharp frown his mouth made. The frown deepened when he registered it was Summer.

With a move so brash it caused Rick to blink several times in confusion, Summer pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was short lived and sweet and once she pulled back he knew he was doomed.

He didn’t deserve this.

“Goodnight Rick.”

* * *

 

She tasted like youth and toothpaste when he would slide his tongue into her welcoming throat day after day.

The fact he wasn’t supposed to be doing this only urged him further, her half-lidded eyes were an image printed on the inside of his eyelids. Science, math, and sex lead to more than Rick had ever anticipated. Words revealing the innermost nooks and crannies of her mind were revealed in the dark after they drained each other physically dry.

Lips ghosting his chest as they lay naked in the sheets whispered confessions of dreams and fears.

He found himself talking, developing those overbearingly protective habits, letting things slip. Rick laughed more under his granddaughter’s sheets in her locked room than he had for a long time. It began to resemble a routine he had long forgotten he had ever maintained with another human being.

Summer was becoming his lover, not just a regrettable one-night stand-although he did still have his regrets about their predicament. While there was always the ever-present realization his happiness and satisfaction was sinful in every way Rick continued. Her intellect was becoming almost parallel to his own and for once he did not feel threatened by this.

Only in the ship as Morty was enthusiastically recalling through stuttering monologue how he almost kissed an alien princess did Rick realize Summer was coming to resemble his ex-wife.

“A-and then s-she had touched m-my hand!”

Summer rolled her eyes tapping softly on her phone screen and glancing to Rick sharing a secret smile.

As the smile of response formed itself on his cheeks the thought dawned on him and a deep inset frown appeared instead. Summer was already looking back down at her screen though and did not note this sudden change in mood.

The old man watched silently as Summer and Morty climbed out of the ship, his fingers aimlessly curling and uncurling around his flask.

Summer’s door creaked open around one am as it had been for the past month or so and Rick stepped inside. The teenager stood and in a swift motion he wrapped her into a bone crushing hug, she clamored back to him as well. She expected kisses and sex but being held for some reason was much more intimate. Emotion and attachment swelled in her chest.

Swaying in the middle of her carpeted floor the couple embraced and hummed, her sharp nose pressed into his clavicle. Her heart was beating erratically as she pulled back to look up to Rick. In that moment, he swallowed the image of her beautiful soft expression and raising his hand to caress her cheek his thumb brushed over her freckle speckled cheeks. A small solar system worth of stars in the form of freckles covered the expanse of her face.

“I love you…I love you, Rick.”

A piece of him ached inside at her naïve confession and he pressed a short kiss to her half-parted lips.

Somehow the kiss was enough and Summer took the action as a form of agreement to her confession. In the back of her mind though as they laid down to sleep she wondered why he had not returned the sentiment verbally. Rick’s hold on her didn’t waver the whole night, and his fingers idly played with the lose strands of her hair.

Love was nothing but a cocktail of hormones spurred to encourage reproduction.

Or at least that was easier to stomach than the thought of being in love with an offspring of his own blood.

* * *

 

“The letter’s here!”

Beth’s excited yell down the hallway caused Summer to hop from her stool at the workbench, a squirming organism begged for death under her abandoned scalpel. Removing goggles from his face, Rick watched her run and smiled at her enthusiasm.

Wait, why was he smiling-school was stupid.

Around the kitchen table Morty, Beth, and Summer poured over the letters contents and Summer’s brown eyes flew across the words.

_Congratulations._

A scream of joy that shook her lungs airless left her mouth and she bounced up and down. Her mother engulfed her in a bone crushing hug and Morty beamed up to his sister at her success. Her eyes searched the doorway behind her mother’s shoulder seeing Rick’s tall form leaning against it.

A bitter sweet smile covered his face and a solemn thumbs up graced her.

She didn’t understand the undertones of his smile though, feeling for once her family was proud of her-they cared- _he_ was proud.

In the middle of the night when he had effortlessly slipped out of Summer’s sleeping hold he walked down to the kitchen table to find the acceptance letter. Rick felt his stomach drop as he read over the address, it was several states away in uptown New York. Suddenly anger surged through his system and he ran a sweaty palm over his face.

Summer was going to be exiting his solar system, a moon that should have never even been in his orbit.

In a way she was still _his_ , but he knew she was off to do what he had always done and explore a new life. Rick knew he should be happy but all he could do was feel conflictedly uncomfortable and for the first time since he had commenced a relationship with his granddaughter he drank to get drunk.

Holding onto the toilet seat with violently quivering hands he emptied his bowels yet the feeling of an upset stomach never subsided.

Lying on the bathroom floor Rick knew what he had to do.

 Slowly with every tick of the clock bringing around another hour another day their dynamic changed. Rick was stepping back, drinking more, talking less. Summer was growing more desperate, clingy, and disturbed by his behavior. Even though she loved him finding him in a puddle of his own puke over and over and being put in immense danger for his impulsive adventures was deterring her.

Morty commented on how it seemed like their grandfather was falling apart as Summer packed her boxes to move out into her dorm.

“Maybe he was always in fucking pieces.”

The younger boy’s eyes flew up to gaze at his older sister stunned by her uncharacteristic comment. Her sentences came to seem as they were poured straight out of Rick’s hopeless mouth through her lips. Morty said nothing though as he handed her the calculator that sat on her bookshelf.

Summer shoved it away with a laugh.

“I don’t need that, I’m not fucking incompetent.”

* * *

 

“S-Summer for the win!”

Several audience members flinched at the slurred holler that rang through the mostly silent auditorium. Rick was drunk at her graduation, embarrassingly so. Beth had a forced smile and Morty looked away as if he didn’t know the wavering old man screaming for the redhead strolling across the stage.

The yell pulled a frown from Summer and her cheeks flushed in mortification.

It only continued though and his screams filled the air, she snatched the diploma and didn’t shake the administrators hand as she practically ran from view down the other side of the stage

They were ghosts of who they used to be at this point and danced around each other never seeming to collide in the right way.

 At her graduation party, amidst Morty flirting with her friend Grace and Beth bragging about her daughter’s achievements, the two found themselves on the balcony alone. Her mother’s slightly jealous comments of congratulations were swimming in her mind. Sobered up enough to stand straight, Rick had both hands on the edge of the balcony's railing when the sound of the door sliding open pulled his attention away.

“Rick.”

He turned to stare one last time at her youthful face and released a breath he didn’t know he was holding when she touched his wrist.

They hadn’t made love since the letter arrived in the mail, and he could feel the anger from his earlier actions radiating off of her skin. Yet her lips still meshed to his, the thought that her kisses were lingering of his own style crossed his mind.

It was dangerously stupid to make love in a house full of her family and friends when the whole event was about herself but they did it anyway.

Unlike the countless times they fucked before Rick was desperately trying to refrain all of the images and sensations to memory. As he slid himself into her heat with a low groan he could feel the reserved way she held her spine. Her hands aggressively gripped his skin and her expression was cold but he could see the burning affection behind her eyes. Shaking hips filled her over and over again causing the bed to squeak and she melted into his embrace like a spell.

He came on her stomach and kissed her lips.

Somehow, he felt he was kissing his lover once more but as he pulled away he had kissed a complete stranger.

Relaxing into a snuggle they both knew so well, Rick caressed her hair and mumbled an insecure confession of love into Summer’s red locks. The ‘I love you’ fell to deaf ears though, as she had already fallen asleep.

* * *

 

“Fuck yourself, Rick. Stop calling me. I don’t care anymore.”

The voicemail filled his garage but the strangest thing about it was the fact her voice never raised in anger only a broken monotone pulse.

Rick glared at the machine in a mix of annoyance and disbelief. Summer made it seem as the whole falling out between them was his fault. He had tried-not for long because he knew he needed to let her go. She had grown distant though when she moved all of those miles away.

It wasn’t his doing either, she just began to see all the flaws within their fragile relationship. The dynamic was no longer emotional just another problem that required a logical solution. Logically having a romantic relationship with one’s family produced damaged offspring-so she shouldn’t do it. Logically when he started drinking and never returned her proclamations of love she should move on-so she did.

Everything was becoming so logical, machinelike-similar to Rick.

The existence was dulling so no wonder he drank.

Logically she wanted nothing to do with him-so he should leave her alone.

So, he did.

Morty’s last few years of high school were more eventful than the entirety of his life. Rick depended on him, found solace in training his grandson but Morty never seemed to catch on like his sister. He never really mentioned Summer to Rick and if he did Rick never responded. Eventually it was like she never existed. Standing in the mirror inspecting a scar as he shaved his face Morty wondered what exactly had happened between his sister and their grandfather.

He suspected something more intimate than familial but how could he know.

More than anything he wished he could return to that family dynamic they once shared. On the fridge Beth hung Summer’s transcripts as they came in perfect score after perfect score.

As Morty and Beth passed one of Summer’s high school friends they paused to say hello. Beth asked if the girl had heard from Summer lately and the tight smile that greeted them was becoming common.

“Yeah. Summer’s cool and all but she’s kind of just a selfish, cold, bitch now. O-oh shit sorry Ms. Smith!”

They had to pull apart Beth and the girl in the middle of the pasta aisle, Morty cheering on but falling silent when the stores security came and separated them.

The younger brother had grown into his lob of brown hair and lanky arms opting to accessorize his iconic yellow tee-shirt with a red jacket. Unable to really go anywhere else or want to he planned to go to the local university a good twenty minutes from home. Rick got once again explicitly drunk for his graduation as well but Morty drowned himself in liquor too to battle his anxiety.

Summer didn’t come to it, in fact Summer had not been home for years.

It was only until Morty’s text in the middle of the winter into his freshman year of college did she return. Beth welcomed her with presents and paid for the plane ticket, Summer brought back another good grade which was all Beth needed to be impressed. Morty clung to his sister with a smile surprised at how much older she looked.

Rick met them at the restaurant late, making the excuse he had an intergalactic errand to run.

She was more beautiful than the last time he saw her. And it all came rushing back so fervently Rick had to stop himself from wrapping his arms around her. Her eyes went past his shoulder as if she were gazing past him, as if he were nothing but transparent space.

The dinner was full of silence and the tension between them caused Morty’s already anxiety ridden hands to drop the glass. Somehow the broken glass passed through the barrier of soundless existence.

Beth and Morty rushed away, Rick’s hand had reached across the ocean of tablecloth and Summer and jerked her hand free. Words tumbled from his lips and she responded to them sharply feeling a burning hurt reawaken inside her chest.  

This brought them to Summer’s hostile words:

_“We were never lovers, Rick. We were just two strangers who used to fuck.”_

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed please let me know, also if you want to follow my tumblr and send me suggestions or comments you can find me at rickandmortyfuckedupmylife. This is one of my shorter works but when I wrote the ending I realized it fit and I couldn't change it. 
> 
> Thanks!


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